Vegas!

Montana

My friend Luke and myself drove North out of Yellowstone National Park after spending time at four different campsites, the first of which was in the Grand Tetons. You can read about our last campsite before our drive, here.

After leaving Yellowstone we intended on stopping at Glacier National Park, Seattle WA, Portland OR, down the Pacific Coast to the Redwood National Park CA, Sequoia National Park CA, Las Vegas NV, the Hoover Dam, and the last stop at the Grand Canyon. In situations like these plans go right out the window.

This part of the trip is less visual and more verbal, I really only got out the camera in Oregon.

The day we woke up and hiked out of our last campsite in Yellowstone may have been the earliest we woke up after a night camping. We had a good start on the day, so we decided to take our first shower of the week. It was a mutual agreement after we showered in the Yellowstone shacks we would drive 6 hours North toward Glacier National Park.

Let’s assume we didn’t actually leave Yellowstone until noon. It would have been challenging to drive all day and hike through Glacier in the dark, so we knew it would be the first night sleeping in the car. The first major city along the way was Bozeman, MT. We made two stops at Costco and Cabela’s, Costco for more water and Cabela’s for no reason. I have had never been in a Cabela’s before, it was Walmart for the outdoors on steroids.

The whole day was planned around the Cubs NLDS game 1 start time of 7:31 PM, 5:31 PM for us in Bozeman. A quick search of the area offered us place to watch the game in a pizza restaurant called Old Chicago, which was connected to the Speakeasy Casino. Safe to say we found our spot to watch the Cubs take game 1, 3-0 to the Nationals.

There was a slight hesitation on what to do after the game, so we opted to drive on.

We made it up into the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, just East of Glacier National Park. It was a 20 minute drive to the Canadian border where we stopped for gas and more food in Browning MT.

Exhausted, we needed a place to park the car for the night, so we pulled into the Holiday Inn Express parking lot connected to the Glacier Peaks Casino. A security guard came out with a flashlight, so we drove over to the Casino parking lot and wondered inside. The Casinos in the area were not my cup of tea, all slots and no tables… my personal nightmare. We walked a quick lap and returned to the car then continued West. I found a spot on the side of the road to pull over and we slept for a few hours in the car.

The following morning we drove to the Glacier National Park Entrance. Our tight budgeting of time and money dictated the decision to not enter the park, 10 cars away and we peeled out. Again Westward bound, the always changing plan was once more to kill time on our way out to Portland where our friend Tim lived. At that point in time he was currently back in Indiana for a wedding and would return to Portland late Sunday early Monday morning.

It was Saturday and we had nothing to do, good thing it was college football season. Next stop, the bar.

Enter the Moose’s Saloon in Kalispell, MT.

This bar kicked ass. It had the feel of being inside a log cabin; dimly lit, bar in the center, peanuts and saw dust on the floor, a few slots by the windows and TV’s everywhere. We grabbed two seats at the corner of the bar and ordered a few pitchers of beer. The bar decor was unmatched.

There we were, two Notre Dame fans watching then #15 ND take on UNC with one small tv screen in front of us. The rest of the bar was hooting and hollering over a Montana State vs Portland State game. What a scene.

After the ND game finished up we still had time to kill. What could we do? The options we came up with were shoot pool, watch a movie, go bowling, the mall, other meaningless attractions?

We couldn’t find a pool hall, so it was between a movie and bowling. We walked into a movie theater and got a price check on tickets before deciding to drive to a bowling alley. The guy behind the counter of the alley told us someone booked the whole alley, ridiculous right? We dragged ourselves back to the car and sat in misery trying to figure out our next move.

After half an hour I found a pool table at some place 20 miles away in Whitefish, Montana.

Whitefish, Montana may be the coolest city in Montana.

There was almost nowhere to park because there was an Octoberfest tent party going on downtown. We stuck to the plan and went straight to a bar called “The Palace” and played pool while watching the Michigan vs Michigan State game.

Anywhere you looked in Whitefish was a brewery, bar, restaurant or casino. Almost too many to try them all.

The Palace gave us what we wanted, a place to kill more time effectively. We had a few cheap beers and played a world series of billiards to decide who would drive next. After trailing three games to one I managed a comeback and tied the series before losing the final game. The second night in a row we slept in the car on the side of the road. Whitefish to Portland was about a 10 hour drive for the next day.

Oregon

Oregon was beautiful.

The whole drive along 84 was something to see, following the river out to the Port was incredible. Later that day we finally got to Portland and tried to navigate the city to our friends house.

Two things to point out about Portland from my observations. 1) Driving through Portland is like driving through a giant neighborhood. Block to block was primarily houses, and this goes without saying but green everywhere. The fresh air out there was outstanding. 2) Homeless galore. It instantly hit us there were tents set up all over the place.

Tim had a great spot in Portland, nice house filled with nearly all the family. One dog and a cat or two. The showers and sleeping could not be more appreciated. That whole Monday we didn’t do a damn thing but wait for Tim to get off work because we hadn’t seen him in a few years. That night we hung out on the back porch shootin’ the shit. They gave us a few inquiries on what to see the next day that was close by while we drank some bourbon that evening.

Once in Oregon I knew I wanted to visit Astoria. The drive from Portland was somewhere in the 2 hour window. We left around noon and drove through some grey clouds to arrive right as the sun was shining through. Our first stop in Astoria was Buoy Brewing company. A warehouse that sat waterfront on the East side of the bridge.

Before we walked inside there was an unmistakable barking noise coming from under the pier. We were in no hurry so we took our time and wandered a little ways to see what all the commotion was.

I also needed a minute to take in the area we were at.

Just off the pier to our right not 10 feet from the Buoy entrance was a Seal sunbathing.

A little further down was a pod of seals just out of sight, tucked under the pier I could not get a picture. This pod of Seals was at least 30 big and all they did was bark.

Inside, the brewery was very nice with plenty of space and tables, all glass windows to see the beer brewing process but more so to look out at the water. They had a few glass plates put into the floor so you could see seals sitting under the warehouse. We grabbed a seat right at the end of the bar, it was the perfect spot to look out this little window.

I had not eaten yet that day and we both ordered a flight of six different beers so I wanted a good meal. The Buoy Burger was recommended and I pass that recommendation on, well worth it. Luke settled for a cup of the clam chowder.

The reason I wanted to go to Astoria in the first place was to see the house from The Goonies. We drove up that hill optimistic but not hopeful. We couldn’t see it. There was a long drive with a sign posted to keep trespassers out, and I didn’t feel like causing a confrontation out in Oregon so we drove right on by.

We drove across the bridge into the tip of Washington state, hooked a left and drove into the Fort Columbia Historical State Park. We couldn’t find a place to park in order to walk out to the water so we drove right back out of there, only to be met on the path by this feller.

It was all of 6 feet from the car when I stopped and tried to hand feed it. It was in shock because it didn’t move, I eventually had to drive away due to a car on my ass. Unsatisfied with our attempt to find a nearby shipwreck bay, we continued our day trip out to the famous Canon Beach.

I drove down to some unoccupied waterfront house and parked the car. We walked down to the beach where a few people were walking and jogging. I walked right up to were the tide couldn’t catch my feet.

We spotted a rock within reasonable distance of the tide rolling out to where we could reach it. At the right moment we both darted for that rock. We took about two steps and then the tide started coming right for us. It was a race to get to that rock and thankfully we both made it dry. Surrounded by the moving waters was a great time to take a smoke break since we couldn’t get off that rock for a few minutes. I aborted mission before my friend and snapped a picture from the dry beach.

About 100 yards away from rock #1 we saw a huge rock, ambitious to get on that thing we wandered over. We stood there and watched the tide for a few minutes before I decided it was not happening.

Luke decided to attempt it.

He started running for that rock as the tide rolled out, got about half way there before realizing the tide was going to catch him. He did not stop and pivot to run back, he did a full U-turn and just ran a half circle to escape the clutches of the water. His second attempt was a success, a little wet on the feet but he got there. The tide would occasionally come crashing in and spray up on the rock, he trapped himself before making an exit.

That was enough of the Pacific for our taste. We went back to the car and decided to make one last stop on Canon Beach to the famous Haystack Rock.

Up close, that rock is the size of a tiny island. Apparently people try to climb it all the time, I would do the same under different circumstances.

Fun fact about Haystack Rock: Haystack Rock was incorporated as a national wildlife refuge in 1968 and became a marine garden in 1991, one of seven protected inter-tidal areas along the Oregon coast.

We drove back to Portland while making up our mind on where to go next. It may not surprise some people we opted to vacate our intentions for Redwood National Forest and the Sequoia National Park to drive straight to Vegas. A sliver of that decision was due to the California wild fires tearing up NorCal.

We got back to Tim’s house while I tried to time map our arrival to Vegas, knowing our other friend Ryan was flying in the following evening.

Portland to Vegas was a 15:30 hour drive. The decision was to lounge around and nap at Tim’s until 2-3 AM. Then the driving would commence. When we got to the southern part of Oregon the sun was rising. We seemed to be surrounded in what was a fog or mist.

Nevada

Not until we got out into the desert of Nevada was it clear, we were surrounded by smoke. The California wildfires were so vast that the smoke was occupying all airspace on our drive South. After hours of driving through Nevada we finally got blue skies and a pounding sun through the windshield.

There were so many miles out here to cover I would exceed speed limits of 100 mph for bursts. Luckily, after one such sprint I let off the gas and the car slowed down to 85 mph just as we passed a state trooper going the other way. As we passed him he flipped his lights and I was to believe we were pinched. After I meticulously checked the review, he never flipped his car to come get me. Not a minute later I drove pass a bus on the side of the road with prisoners cleaning up trash. It was my belief the copper was notifying me to slow down for approaching people.

RIP Tom Petty. While out in the Nevada desert there was intermittent signal for cell phones and the radio. When I did get a glimpse of cell signal I caught a news story of Tom’s death. To verify I sent out a message to our group of friends. It was confirmed and I never got to see him live. Big Tom Petty guy. That moment was filled with highs and lows.

Entering Las Vegas is something to be celebrated. There is excitement in the air that anything is possible.

After a 15+ hour drive we were still a taxi service.

We picked Ryan up from the airport, drove to the Flamingo, met his cousin, got cleaned up and went for a stroll. Lots of walking with too much to look at. So many back and side routes through casinos to make them all connect, Ryan led us though the maze without a hesitation in his step as to where we were going. The night basically went from spending time at a few different spots I can’t all remember to eventually back at the Flamingo craps table around 1-2 AM.

It is here I will end this trip. Vegas continued on for another two days a lot of the same. In summary long nights, cheap beers, little sleep, craps, Texas Hold’em dealt me losing pocket Aces, MLB playoff baseball, and one night locked out the hotel room spent sleeping in a parking garage. A little context to the vibes surrounding our Vegas trip, this was about 10 days after the Mandalay Bay Shooting on Oct 1st, 2017. The city was and remains strong, Vegas Strong.

Las Vegas to South Bend was a 26 hour car drive.

The drive back was basically the end of our trip. We rotated driving in and out of consciousness while listening to Game of Thrones on tape. It was actually quite entertaining. I stopped in Colorado for a few hours of sleep at a rest stop, but other than that the drive was straight through.

This trip offered a lot of “firsts” for me. It opened me up to a different take on traveling, and where my comfort zone ended. Could I trek further, climb higher, stay longer? I sure as fuck wanted to find out.

Find out next time how I followed up a staple to my adventurous side.